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Sunday, 22 May 2011

Aamal Co. (AHCS), a Qatari holding company, had its biggest two-day increase on record after it said May 18 it would list shares in the form of global depositary receipts on the London Stock Exchange next month.

Aamal has soared 21 percent in the past two trading days, the biggest rise since at least December 2007, when Bloomberg started tracking the shares. They jumped 10 percent to 22.14 ($6.08) riyals today.

The company will offer 118.8 million shares held by Faisal Bin Qassim Al Thani, representing 24 percent of the company’s share capital, Aamal said May 18. The company owns stakes in industrial manufacturing, trading, real-estate and managed- services businesses.

A $4 billion aid package Saudi Arabia has pledged to Egypt will include a $1 billion deposit at the Central Bank of Egypt and $500 billion in bond purchases, al-Ahram newspaper quoted a Saudi official on Sunday as saying.

The package, which Egypt announced on Sunday, is designed to to support the country's cash-strapped economy in the wake of the upheaval that ousted President Hosni Mubarak on Feb. 11.

The turmoil has caused tourism and investor revenue to dry up at a time when high popular expectations have increased the pressure on the budget.

As the racing cars of the Scuderia Toro Rosso Formula One team scream around the Grand Prix track in Barcelona today, spectators will see a name on the nose cone that is gaining a reputation among the UAE's super-rich.

Falcon Private Bank, a Swiss lender fully owned by Abu Dhabi's Aabar Investments, has signed a sponsorship agreement with the team which will see its name emblazoned on the racing livery of the team's cars and drivers until at least the end of the current season.

"The Falcon Private Bank sponsor logo will be visible on the Swiss driver Sebastien Buemi's and Spanish driver Jaime Alguersuari's … car fronts, as well as both the front wing right and left end-plates during the 2011 season," the bank said, without disclosing how much had been paid for the sponsorship.

Egypt's shares rallied to a one-month high as the US and Saudi Arabia pledged a total of $6 billion (Dh22bn) in support for the North African country recovering from the aftermath of a popular uprising that ousted its president.

Orascom Telecom Holding SAE surged as much as 8.9 per cent after Deutsche Bank AG raised the country's biggest mobile-phone operator to "buy." Ezz Steel, Egypt's largest producer of the metal, soared 7 per cent. The EGX 30 Index climbed 1.7 per cent to 5,335.96, the highest intraday level since April 14, at 11:15am in Cairo. The index has tumbled 25 per cent this year. The EGX 100 Index increased 2.1 per cent.

Saudi Arabia's assistance will be granted in "soft loans, deposits and grants," the state-run Saudi Press Agency said yesterday, citing a statement by Egyptian Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, who heads the ruling military council. US President Barack Obama last week pledged aid for Egypt that included $1bn in loan guarantees through the Overseas Private Investment Corporation and a cancellation of $1bn in debt, about a third of what the nation owes the US.

Recruitment levels in the Middle East improved moderately in the six months to April 2011, according to Monster Employment Index Middle East, indicating a consistent improvement in the job market in the region.

On country specific growth, Saudi Arabia (up 10 per cent) was the strongest among the GCC countries in six-month growth. However, the study shows that available online opportunities in the UAE in the month of April slid 10 per cent below the November level. Jobs in hospitality rebounded but it was production/manufacturing, automotive and ancillary that led all sectors in six-month growth. Demand for marketing and communications/arts/creative professionals recorded strongest six-month growth despite steep monthly decline.

Egypt (down -25 per cent) saw online hiring recede further. The six-month view shows the country’s online jobs space dip by 25 per cent between November and April; the steepest six-month decline among all countries, according to the Index.

Abu Dhabi's state-owned fund Mubadala now holds a majority 26.1 percent stake in district cooling firm Tabreed after completion of a tender offer of shares to repay an Islamic bond due this month, Tabreed said on Sunday.

Mubadala and its wholly-owned subsidiary General investments FZE previously held a 16.79 percent stake in Tabreed, a company spokesman said.

In a statement to the bourse on Sunday, Tabreed said it has completed an issuance of 415.68 million shares to repay the 1.7 billion dirhams ($463 million) convertible Islamic bond, or sukuk.

The competitiveness of the Qatari economy is being increasingly recognised at global levels, and for good reasons. Qatar already outsmarts all countries in the Middle East and North Africa (Mena) region on the Global Competitiveness Index.

The new addition relates to the country securing a ranking of No 8 globally on the 2011 World Competitiveness Yearbook (WCY) amongst 59 economies reviewed in the study, whose results were released only last week. The international business school of IMD, located in Switzerland, publishes the annual survey.

This suggests that Qatar has improved its ranking by seven notches, as the country ranked No 15 in the 2010 version of WCY, undoubtedly remarkable progress in a single year.

A New York court has ordered four international banks to provide evidence in the investigation of a Saudi businessman accused of running a US$10 billion (Dh36.7bn) Ponzi scheme.

Ahmad Hamad Al Gosaibi & Brothers, a prominent Saudi family business, is suing Maan al Sanea, a Saudi businessman, in a number of courts around the world, accusing him of using a money transfer business owned by Al Gosaibi to siphon funds into his own accounts.

Large money transfers through US banks were allegedly instrumental in sustaining the scheme.

Al-Futtaim Group, one of the Middle East's largest conglomerates, expects to sign acquisitions worth more than US$500 million (Dh1.83 billion) in coming weeks as it expands in Saudi Arabia and elsewhere in the Middle East.

Marwan Shehadeh, the group's director of corporate development, said the acquisitions would "complement" the group's existing core businesses and raise its profile in Saudi Arabia.

"It is a priority for us to grow our Saudi auto business, and we are in the process of making a couple of acquisitions in the auto sector there," Mr Shehadeh said. "Our aim and strategy is to become much more substantial in Saudi."